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Saturday, April 18, 2009

but, I'll play devils advocate since I see 'behind the scenes' at gun shops quite a bit

#1 how do you know WHEN the ammo on their shelves was bought?A store might have had 100,000 rounds of .45acp they bought 7 years ago at a good prices. SO selling it at $X today they are still making a profit selling it for $Y less than other shops who only buy a few hundred rounds at a time, and are now paying current market prices

#2 Working with gun shops gives me an idea what prices are on things.. wholesale, factory direct, etc... and guess what? prices ARE going upNot necessarily because of the news, or BHO, or fuel costs, or environmental costs, or hoarding or lack of raw materials.. but more likely a blend of all these reasons and more

#3 the war.. like it or hate it.. it's buying ammo that factorys might otherwise make for us

#4 We were talking about the prices of ammo the other day.. and the idea was brought up..

Mil-Surplus ammo is getting used.. and most is goneWe used to have a seemingly endless supply of surplus ammo to help buffer the supply and demand cycles.Good times and bad I knew I could always go get some WWII surplus .30-06, .308 more recently but still mil-surplus the .223 (5.56x39) and of course 7.62x39 ammo is plentiful most of the time.

But as the mil-surplus supplies from the Cold War dry up.. we will depend on the Russian ammo factories (along with the rest of the world) for all the 7.62x39

With increased demand, US factories need to make more .223 (5.56x45) and .308 (7.62x51) and that could mean they will make less of the other calibers; .380, 9mm, .38spl, .40 s&w, .44mag, .45acp, etc

This is just a possible reason we think might be responsible, we haven't researched it

#5 we all know Bull shit sells papers, and most journalists don't take the time to research stories consistently.. this leads to fear, rumors, reactions and poor decisionsHeadlines like "Ammo Shortages".. "Fear sells more ammo than..." and the like might sell papers but they don't really educate, inform or even entertain..

I'd like to see a headline like.. "Research into recent ammo price increases results in ..."

Perhaps if more people were thinking about solutions to the real problems, and fewer people worried about what might happen, we might even find some solutions, lower prices and more new shooters

What to do??

- Pick up your brass, and steel cases (recycle)- Reload (re-use that brass, and even that lead.. learn how)- Shoot Smart - don't stop shooting.. just shoot smarter. Take a class, buy a few DVDs, learn some drills. There are many ways a shooter can practice skills and techniques without ammo or the danger of a live fire range- Keep shooting - Get out there, keep the ranges full, keep your skills sharp- Bring new shooters to the range- Chat here or someplace like this placehttp://www.gunchat.net/chat/viewtopic.php?p=66170#66170